In Android Elevation/Shadow is not showing when generating Bitmap of a View

Question

I'm generating the bitmap of a view to show it as a marker on the Map. It is working fine but the issue that i'm facing is that elevation of the view is not showing.

private Bitmap getMarkerBitmapFromView(View view) {

        view.measure(View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED);
        view.layout(0, 0, view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight());
        //view.buildDrawingCache();
        view.setLayerType(View.LAYER_TYPE_SOFTWARE, null);
        Bitmap returnedBitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight(),
                Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);
        Canvas canvas = new Canvas(returnedBitmap);
        /*canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_IN);
        Drawable drawable = view.getBackground();
        if (drawable != null)
            drawable.draw(canvas);
        */
        view.draw(canvas);
        return returnedBitmap;

    }

Answer 1

public static Bitmap generateBitmap(Context context, String msg) {
        Bitmap bitmap = null;
        LayoutInflater mInflater = (LayoutInflater) context.getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);

        //Inflate the layout into a view and configure it the way you like
        RelativeLayout view = new RelativeLayout(context);
        try {
            mInflater.inflate(R.layout.point_helper, view, true);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        TextView tv = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.textView);
        tv.setText(msg);

        //Provide it with a layout params. It should necessarily be wrapping the
        //content as we not really going to have a parent for it.
        view.setLayoutParams(new ViewGroup.LayoutParams(RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
                RelativeLayout.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));

        //Pre-measure the view so that height and width don't remain null.
        view.measure(View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED),
                View.MeasureSpec.makeMeasureSpec(0, View.MeasureSpec.UNSPECIFIED));

        //Assign a size and position to the view and all of its descendants
        view.layout(0, 0, view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight());

        //Create the bitmap
        bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(view.getMeasuredWidth(), view.getMeasuredHeight(), Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);

        //Create a canvas with the specified bitmap to draw into
        Canvas c = new Canvas(bitmap);

        //Render this view (and all of its children) to the given Canvas
        view.draw(c);

        return bitmap;
    }

Drawable for layout background, put it inside drawable folder and set it.

bg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <layer-list>
            <item>
                <shape>
                    <solid android:color="#35000000" />
                    <corners android:radius="2dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
            <item android:bottom="3dp" android:left="1dp" android:right="3dp" android:top="1dp">
                <shape>
                    <solid android:color="#ffffff" />
                    <corners android:radius="1dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
        </layer-list>
    </item>
</selector>

I slightly modified your logic, Have a look at this code. It requires a layout. If layout is not possible to provide, try to give the parent view of the bitmap view.